Neda-ye Qumess, Vahoomen, Payam-e Azadi, Sobh-e Emrooz, Mosharekat, Varzesh va Andisheh, Varzeshi 90, Negah-e Avval, Tadbir va Zendegui, Cinema-ye Emrooz, Film va Honar, Honar-e Hafteh, Khanoom Khanooma, Aftab-e Varzeshi, 20 Saleh-ha, Borna, Misaq-e Noor, Dournama, Golbang Azadi, Khatereh, Donya, Pahlevan, Sardar-e Iran, Ava-ye Varzesh, Chehel Kelid, Sepidar, etc.
I started my journalistic work in 1991. I became familiar with Vahoomen magazine, Roozbeh Farahanipour and the MPG in 1996 when a group of my journalist friends and I were struggling in the political atmosphere of that time, such as it was. I started writing for Vahoomen and Neda-ye Qumess, aiming to further introduce and raise appreciation for nationalistic heroes who throughout Iran’s history from Cyrus the Great to journalists and activists who have sacrificed nothing less than their lives for Iran’s liberty and glory.
Vahoomen edited by Roozbeh Farahanipour and Neda-ye Qumess edited by me were published through our mutual cooperation. The Ministry of Intelligence agents grappled with us during the July 9th University Row events which led to our incarceration and our group was banned from further activity as we were called to appear before courts and the Intelligence Ministry regularly.
Repeated death threats as well as the threat of execution by the Islamic Regime mounted tremendous pressure on my dear friend Roozbeh Farahanipour, MPG party Chairman and forced him to leave Iran and to continue the party’s activities abroad. He succeeded in starting a productive network in the US. He fortified and re-energized the party in Iran and steadfastly continues his work. Long Live Iran!
I was forced underground for a period of time and had to curtail my political activities for a little while. I was threatened repeatedly and my family was increasingly putting pressure on me to stay away from journalism, and so, I kept away from journalism till 2001. My father was subpoenaed to clerical court and as a result, he took the Neda-ye Qumess magazine from me which led to a parting of ways between me and my family. I started publishing a few sports and cinema magazines and newspapers. But, since I was still under scrutiny by the Intelligence agents, further problems developed.
Early on between 2002 through 2005 I was summoned to various courts and was chastised and advised not to continue my journalistic activities, etc. I was warned and my colleagues and managers were warned to discontinue their work and association with me or else, their publication licenses would be revoked. I was editor-in-chief for the publications Neda-ye Qumess, Khatereh, Film va Honar, Golbang-e Azadi, Doornama, KhanomKkhanooma, all of which were shut down and their licenses revoked.
I would still not give up and forge ahead with yet another new publication. Until, 10th of Dey in 2005 at 11:00 A.M., 5 plain clothed agents raided my office.
Five plain clothed agents raided the office on 10th of Dey, 2005 at 11:00 A.M., brandishing weapons, wireless communicators and cameras, they began to separate men and women into rooms [vague on number of rooms and or separation or grouping together], unplugged the phones and computers, collected mobile phones and video recorded everyone. There about forty journalists and [other] employees present at the office who were also working with me. Everyone’s pockets and bags, everyone’s ID cards were taken and they collected all the books, magazines, loose papers, computers, office documents and even the papers in the waste baskets and put them the bags they had brought.
I initially thought they were thieves because they remained silent as I repeatedly asked them to produce a warrant to enter the premises. They told me I had to go with them at last but I refused and they left without insisting.
My phone rang at four o’clock with no caller ID. It was one of them and he told me I had to be at the government employees’ court’s sixth branch at Ark circle at 8:00 A.M. the next day. I went there in the morning and saw two of them and together we appeared before the judge.
Judge Islami said: “these gentlemen are from the Ministry of Intelligence and entered your office with my permission and you are in their custody as of now. It is to your advantage to cooperate with them.”
(I later found out through my connections that they had cooked up a special plan for me but, due to my good standing in the journalistic community and my numerous contacts within the journalists, they decided against it in fear of bad publicity and thus, they made it into a ‘legal issue’.) The agents told me to be at the Intelligence Ministry on Khajeh Abdollah St. the following morning at 9:00 A.M. I asked whom should I ask for? They said: “just give your name; that’ll be enough.”
I went there in the morning and stated my name at the door which was monitored by a camera. They buzzed me in. I entered a small hall. There was an apparently broken gate and only one plain clothed guard was present who directed me to a 2m x 2m room.
There were metal bars on the ceiling to which [light] projectors and halogen lamps were affixed. A school test chair, a small table and two chairs where in the room. I was in that room for about an hour before two agents walked in and started to interrogate me. They asked about my job. I repeatedly asked what my crime was and they did not answer.
At the sound of the noon prayer call, they made me sign a pledge not to speak of the place and the individuals who interrogated me.
These interrogations continued in the same manner as the first day for about two months except they’d employ a new tactic everyday and expertly unnerved me. They would ask about:
· my contacts with counter-revolutionary individuals and foreign assets/agents such as Alireza Nourizadeh, Roozbeh Farahanipour, Ardeshir Zare’zadeh, the VoA and other networks…
· counter-revolutionary activities and efforts to overthrow the Islamic regime
· printing and publishing Marze-Por-Gohar Party’s night-letters
· whether I had an history of working with counter-revolutionary newspapers and websites
· whether I had any contact with individuals within the Ministry of [Islamic] Enlightenment in order to abuse financial opportunities and not provide a report on my publications’ contents – one of the main pillars of cultural invasion through publishing article promoting vanity, Hollywood and Baliwood cinema, introducing Western role models and idolizing individuals such as Mohammadreza Golzar, Hediyeh Tehrani, Shadmehr Aqili, etc.
· introducing and interviewing of pop singers
· receiving funds from the “Americans” for publishing magazines
· shedding a negative light on the Islamic revolution and society in columns and articles
· abusing my father’s name and position (Ayatollah Vahid)
· disrespecting regime officials such as Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Seyyed-Ali Khamene’i
· leasing other publications and recruiting counter-revolutionary journalists, etc.
Every now and again, they’d come back to moral issues and would make lewd and untrue accusations about my having relations with known individuals with moral issues, or accuse me of making fake IDs or bootlegging illegal movies and would exploit my spirituality and torture my soul and threaten to expose these “problems” if I did not cooperate.
They would interrogate me daily about the same issues and I would write down my answers. They would come back the next day, tear up all my papers and say that I lied yesterday and if I did not tell the truth, they’d have to turn the to my moral problems…
They had my entire phone conversations from my offices as well as my mobile and home phones. The typed transcripts were kept in two thick folders and the significant items were marked…
To make a long story short, I was mentally at a critical point and so I decided to go to judge Islami and asked him to either imprison me or set me free. Islami said: “it is out of my hands; I merely issued the warrant and you are in their custody.”
When I arrived at the interrogation site the following day, they asked me why I had gone [to the judge] and I replied that I was unable to endure any more interrogation. They sent me on my way. Every other week or so, I would be called back in for more questioning. This continued for about a year until January 7, 2007 when my father was called to appear in court where he posted bail for me and temporarily secured my custody from the Ministry of Intelligence.
Once I was free on bail, I slowly increased my journalistic activities and started to publish the journal “Borna” in Emirates [UAE]. I tried to use my own name in Iran less and less. But, by the end of summer of 2007, the Ministry of Intelligence started summoning managing editors of those publications and openly intimidated and directly threatened them and ordered them cease their collaboration with me. They did what they were told, for the most part.
But, the Ministry did not stop there. They blocked rations and subsidies for paper and other supplies distributed by the Ministry of [Islamic] Enlightenment. (Of course, this practice was already the norm three years running in the Ministry of [Islamic] Enlightenment which gave zero support to any publication bearing my name.)
They had also frozen my bank accounts thinking I’m receiving funding from the Americans. Their next step was to stop my magazines from publishing: they ordered print-shops not to collaborate with me.
Until one day when I was going home from work, a Peugeot stopped for me in front of my office at Moddaress Hwy. I thought it was a taxi and got in. There were two people in front and one in the back seat. A little further ahead one of them got off and suddenly got in the back seat and put his hands on my head, pushing down very hard. The other helped him. I tried to get free but could not.
They shouted vulgarities at me and told me to stop talking and keep my head down and proceeded to tie something over my eyes. About a half an hour later, they entered the parking of a seemingly large building and drove down two or three levels. They took me out of the car and tied my hands with plastic cables and took me to a room.
I was alone there for I don’t know how long. Then, some one came in and after a few minutes of silence started talking and said: “it seems that you just don’t get it and are walking on thin ice…” He threatened me that I was playing with my life and then he left.
I was there for about two days. He would come every day and threaten me and leave. The last day he told me to: “close up shop and do not speak of this anywhere otherwise, the next time, you won’t be coming here”, and they took me back with the same car and dropped me off near my house in Velenjak and left.
About a week later, a letter arrived from the court. When I went in, judge Islami had been taken off the case and a new person had been put in charge of it. He, in two or three sessions, put together a very thick file ranging from journalistic violations with regard to aiding and abetting the propagation of political and cultural offensive towards bringing down the regime and putting a negative spin on the current situation (political, cultural, economic), etc., and set a new trial date for me at Shahid Beheshti court on August 4, 2008. So, I left Iran.
